Private schools suggesting that all their reception places are taken by kids in their nurseries - true or way to get people's money?

[Dozer]

We live in Surrey and are considering sending our two daughters to a private primary school (don't want to get into a state v private debate if possible, that debate is raging in my house and head as it is!).

DD1 is nearly 3. Many of the private schools near us have nurseries starting at aged 2 or 3 (part-time five mornings or afternoons a week). Admissions people at the schools have suggested that all or almost all of their reception places for 2012 (when DD1 will start school) will be taken by children who attend the nursery and siblings of older children.

I am wondering whether, unless we send DD1 for the 3-4 nursery year, we'll miss out on the chance of a place, or if (I'm being cynical) they are painting a picture that isn't quite accurate in order to fill up the nursery classes. It is hard to know: we don't know any parents of kids at any of the schools (just moved into the area) and private schools don't publish this kind of information.

When I return to work later this year, I'd much rather send DD1 to the local community nursery, where they offer full-day childcare for part of the week, then start her at a school for reception. If she goes somewhere half days five days a week, this won't fit at all well with my working three full days.

Anyone out there been in a similar situation?

I have been in a slightly different situation, in that I didn't want my DCs to go to nursery at all at three; I wanted them to start Reception at a local private school at four. The general Admissions line was that we didn't stand a chance unless they'd been in the nursery. In practice, however, we had a chat with the head and explained our position. He was fab, and said they always kept a few places available for entry into Reception - and we would be very welcome to be pencilled in for a Reception place, which we duly were.

When it came to it, we started them both late in Reception as I didn't want them to go to school at all at just four. Again, the school was marvellous and accommodated us and our children perfectly.

I suggest you talk to the head and tell him/her your concerns, then take it from there. Good luck.

The school DS attends, he is the only child in his class who didn't attend Kindergarten at the school. But it wasn't a problem in terms of admissions, but in retrospect, I would have put him there for a couple of days a week.

Do they not do any option for a full day in the nursery class ?

Interesting. Well I would say if the children are already at nursery and want to continue with the school fair's fair!

I am in Surrey too and dd currently attends an 8-6 nursery. We have a place for her in reception in 2012 which we 'booked' when she was 2. It wasn't a problem as they had space then.

If there's not room there's not room. That's the problem - I wouldn't say they are trying to fill up their nursery.

Good luck!

Thats more or less true at the dc's school.

They have 36 nursery places and 40 reception places. Almost but not quite all of the nursery children moved on into reception so that left just a small handful of places for those completely new to the school.

It was more of an issue in dd's year (before the recession hit) in ds's year things were at its worst however now thingsa have picked up again and two other local independent schools have closed or have announed they are closing I expect there to be a scramble for places.

However I really liked the nursery at school as you could choose between full time or part time (local schools were full time only) and you could choose between school hours or childcare hours so maybe that is why nursery is so popular.

We were in a similar situation. For various reasons, we didn't decide we wanted to send DS to a private prep until last November for entry into Reception this September. (We're also in Surrey.)

We looked at 3 different schools, all of which started at nursery. Two of them said they had places in Reception as, in one case, the nursery wasn't full and in the other, there were more Reception places than there were nursery. The third one, and the one we fell in love with, said that if all the nursery kids go up to Reception, there will be no places so we duly went on the waiting list. The Head did say, however, that a number of local mums use the nursery and then transfer to the state primary at Reception - as they are only part-time and take the Early Years Funding vouchers it's not that expensive to get a private nursery place. Sure enough, DS has since had a place confirmed.

I would imagine it's down to the popularity of the school, how many nursery kids stay for Reception and whether there are more Reception places than nursery places. Put your DD's name down now and have a contingency plan.

Thank you everyone, this is all really helpful.

I'm not suggesting that there's anything unfair about the nursery kids getting the places (although this is a further financial hurdle to those for whom private school may - just - be manageable).

It'd be good if ANY of the pre-schools (or indeed traditional drop-off playgroups for 3-4 year olds) in our area (state or private) offered part-time full days, but they don't. Nursery / childminders seem to be the only options for couples who both work.

Dozer, a further thought. At the private school my children went to before we moved, the official line was the same as you've heard: five mornings or five afternoons per week. However, when we told the Head that we found this off-putting, he offered us much more flexibility. Again, it's a good idea to ask.

At the private school my daughter goes to now, the children can do anything in the nursery from one morning to 8-6, five days per week. I presume you have fully investigated - in person - everything that's available at your potential schools?

Hi Dozer
Word of warning from me.....!

We have twins and looked at a lovely private school which gave us nursery places. We then decided to put the girls into local state nursery so I could spend extra time at home with the girls instead of going back to work. At the reception stage there were only approximately 10 available and they had around 30 applicants on top of those going through from nursery. I wanted 2 places and sadly we ended up with nothing. If competition is stiff for your school I would cough up for the nursery!! Hindsight is a wonderful thing........

Thanks Hildegard, wow, 8-6 sounds great! Guess the degree of flexibility depends on whether or not the school can fill its nursery spaces with people doing the standard 5 days or half days. Thank you for the tip. Think will try to get some appointments to look round the nurseries / schools.

We're new to all this (both went to state schools and just moved out of London) and v.naive about the process!

Sparebear, what a nightmare for you. I recognise the dilemma, am really uncomfortable about the prospect of my DDs spending most of their week in either pre-school or childcare when they have years of full-time education ahead of them. But it seems to be the only way to secure places. Hope your twins are doing OK where they are now?

DD's state school nursery has 52 places and reception has 90 places. We didn't get into the nursery so sent her to a private and would have stayed there if she hadn't got into reception at this particular state school. I imagine the same is true for most schools, the nurseries are smaller so the private schools mop up the excess and then a lot of children move to state for reception.

I don't know where you are in Surrey, but where we are the state schools are quite good, so the independents don't ever seem to be full. I would have said it might be much more difficult to get a nursery place!

dd had a Reception place at one such school -she was one of less than 6 in her year who didn't attend the nursery out of 48. Of these she and at least one other had older siblings joining at the same time or already there. The year group does traditionally expand slightly at this stage but we had to register early (dd was 6 months !) to secure one of these few extra palces.